Sachin Tendulkar's son and bowling all-rounder Arjun Tendulkar finally made his long-awaited Ranji Trophy debut for Goa in their Elite Group C match against Rajasthan at the Goa Cricket Association Academy Ground in Porvorim on Tuesday, December 14. The left-arm pacer who shifted to Goa earlier in 2022 after not getting enough chances to play for Mumbai has played only seven List A matches and nine T20s for Mumbai and Goa.
The match against Rajasthan was also his first-class debut as well.
Arjun was a part of the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) but didn’t play for the five-time champions. The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) also gave a No Objection Certificate (NoC) to Arjun, who applied for the same.
“He wanted to play for Goa in the forthcoming season, so he approached us. We told him to first get an NoC from MCA, which he got today. We will have his fitness and skill test going ahead. Like many players, Arjun wanted to play for Goa but a process will be followed before we pick him,” Vipul Phadke, the Goa Cricket Association secretary, was quoted as saying.
His first match for Goa saw them lose the early wicket of Sumiran Amonkar, who got out to Kamlesh Nagarkoti. Amogh Sunil Desai looked good in his 27 before Arafat Khan accounted for his wicket. Thereafter, Suyash Prabhudessai and Snehal Suhas Kautahnkar took charge and guided Goa to 84 for the loss of two wickets at lunch.
Prabhudessai went on to score an unbeaten 81 into stumps on Day 1 while Kauthankar scored 59 runs in 104 balls before losing his wicket to Aniket Choudhary.
Arjun made his batting debut after the wicket of Eknath Kerkar for three runs in 15 balls, and scored four runs in 12 balls for Goa.
He was picked for Rs 30 lakh by MI in the IPL 2022 auction. As MI were knocked out of playoff contention early in the season, the team management handed debut caps to a few players but Arjun remained on the sidelines.
